Sivera’s six saves underpin Alaves’ 1–0 win over Villarreal

Player snapshot

Antonio Sivera started in goal and played all 90 minutes of Alaves’ 1–0 home win over Villarreal in La Liga on 28 August, returning an individual rating of 8.0, six saves and no goals conceded. Source 1 Source 2

Alaves led from the 31st minute and defended that advantage through five minutes of added time, with the match ending 1–0 at Mendizorroza. Source 1 Source 4

Sivera’s clean sheet was earned in a match where Villarreal put six attempts on target, meaning his six saves accounted for every on-target effort recorded for the visitors. Source 2 Source 3

Production

The available 2026 La Liga season return listed Sivera with two appearances, two starts and 180 minutes, alongside one goal conceded, 45 attempted passes and 62% passing accuracy. Source 5

Those totals equate to 0.5 goals conceded and 22.5 attempted passes per 90 minutes across that early two-start sample. Source 5

For this match specifically, Sivera attempted 25 passes and completed 14, while his six saves in 90 minutes produced a single-match rate of six saves per 90. Source 2

The passing figures frame the task clearly: this was not a game in which Alaves controlled possession, as the hosts had 25% of the ball and made 196 team passes compared with Villarreal’s 75% possession and 630 passes. Source 3

Style fingerprint

The statistical fingerprint was that of a goalkeeper operating behind a deep, heavily tested defensive performance rather than a possession-led build-up. Source 2 Source 3

Villarreal attempted 18 shots, with 14 coming from inside the penalty area, and generated 1.28 expected goals; Alaves faced nine corners as well as six shots on target. Source 3

That concentration of attempts inside the area matters more than the raw shot count alone, because it places the decisive work close to goal rather than describing a barrage solely from distance. Source 3

Sivera’s return was clean in the core stopping column: six saves, zero conceded and no penalty save required. Source 2

His distribution was functional but limited by the match context, with 14 accurate passes from 25 attempts compared with Alaves’ overall team completion rate of 74%. Source 2 Source 3

The event record does not provide a shot-by-shot breakdown of save locations or techniques, so the available evidence supports an assessment of workload and outcome rather than claims about a particular save type. Source 4

Comparables

The cited match and season records do not provide a like-for-like goalkeeper comparison set, so there is no evidence-based peer ranking to attach to this performance. Source 2 Source 5

The useful benchmark within the match is instead the scale of Villarreal’s pressure: six shots on target, 18 total attempts and 14 efforts from inside the box against a side that had only 25% possession. Source 3

The Read

This was a high-demand, low-possession clean sheet in which Sivera supplied the volume of saves required to preserve Alaves’ one-goal lead. Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

The result should be credited to the wider defensive effort as well as the goalkeeper, since Alaves restricted Villarreal to no goals despite the visitors’ territorial control and high number of attempts from the area. Source 1 Source 3

For Sivera individually, the strongest evidence is straightforward: he faced six on-target efforts and stopped all six, then completed the match without conceding. Source 2 Source 3

The late yellow card, shown in the second minute of added time, did not alter that outcome. Source 4

Temporal Read

As a completed-match recap, the evidence establishes a notable single-game response under pressure rather than a broader verdict on Sivera’s season. Source 1 Source 5

His season sample at the time stood at only 180 league minutes, so the six-save clean sheet against Villarreal was a substantial match contribution but remains best read alongside further starts rather than as a standalone season-wide conclusion. Source 2 Source 5